'Tis Hymen peoples every town;

High wedlock then be honoured:
Honour, bigh bonour and renown
To Hymen, God of every town!

Duke Sen. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me, Even daughter, welcome, in no lefs degree.

Phe. I will not eat my word-now thou art mine, Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine.

Enter Jaques de Boys.

Jaq. de B. Let me have audience for a word, or

two

I am the fecond fon of old fir Rowland,

That bring these tidings to this fair affembly.
Duke Frederick hearing, how that every day
Men of great worth reforted to this forest,
Addrefs'd a mighty power; which were on foot
In his own conduct purpofely to take
His brother here, and put him to the fword:
And to the fkirts of this wild wood he came;
Where, meeting with an old religious man,
After fome question with him, was converted
Both from his enterprize, and from the world:
His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother,
And all their lands reftor'd to them again,
That were with him exil'd. This to be true,
I do engage my life.

Duke Sen. Welcome young man :

Thou offer'ft fairly to thy brother's wedding;
To one, his lands with-held; and to the other,
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
First, in this foreft, let us do these ends
That here were well begun, and well begot :
And, after, every of this happy number,
That have endur'd fhrewd days and nights with us,
Shall fhare the good of our returned fortune,
According to the meafure of their ftates.

Mean

Mean time, forget this new-fall'n dignity,

And fall into our ruftick revelry:

Play, mufick; and you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the meatures fall.
Jaq. Sir, by your patience: if I heard you rightly,
The Duke hath put on a religious life,

And thrown into neglect the pompous court.
Jaq. de B. He hath.

Jaq. To him will I: out of thefe convertites
There is much matter to be heard and learn'd.
You to your former honour I bequeath, [To the Duke.
Your patience, and your virtue, well deferve it.
You to a love, that your true faith doth merit;

You to your land, and love, and

[To Orla.

great allies:

(To Oli.

[To Silv.

You to a long and well deferved bed;

And you to wrangling; for thy loving voyage

To the Clown.

Is but for two months victual'd:-fo to your pleafures:
I am for other than for dancing measures.
Duke Sen. Stay, Jaques, ftay.

Jaq. To fee no paftime, I:-what you would have, I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave.

[Exit. Duke Sen. Proceed. proceed; we will begin thefe rites; As, we do truft they'll end, in true delights.

what you

would have

8 To fee no paftime, I:-
I'll flay to know at your abandon'd cave.]

Amidst this general feftivity, the reader may be forry to take his leave of Jaques, who appears to have no fhare in it, and remains behind unreconciled to fociety. He has, however. filled with a gloomy fenfibility the space allotted to him in the play, and preferves that refpect to the laft, which is due to him as a confiflent character, and an amiable tho' folitary moralift.

It may be obferved, with fcarce lefs concern, that Shakespeare has on this occasion forgot old Adam, the fervant of Orlando, whofe fidelity should have entitled him to notice at the end of the piece, as well as to that happinefs which he would naturally have found, in the return of fortune to his maiter. STEEVENS.

EPILOGUE.

Rof. It is not the fashion to fee the lady the Epilogue: but it is no more unhandfome, than to fee the lord the Prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true, that a good Play needs no Epilogue. Yet to good wine they do ufe good bufhes; and good Plays prove the better by the help of good Epilogues. What a cafe am in then, that am neither a good Epilogue, nor can infinuate with you in the behalf of a good play? I am not furnish'd like a beggar;' therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you, and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, 3 for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this Play as pleases them and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women,

What a cafe am I in then, &c.] Here feems to be a chafm, or fome other depravation, which deftroys the fentiment here intended. The reafoning probably flood thus, Good wine needs no bufh, gord plays need no epilogue, but bad wine requires a good bufh, and a bad play a good epilogue. What cafe am I in then? To restore the words is impoffible; all that can be done without copies is, to note the fault. JOHNSON.

-furnish'd like a beggar;] That is dressed: so before, he was fun fed like a huntfman. JOHNSON.

2

I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to mex, 10 like as much if this play as pleajes YOU: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women,that between you and the women, &c.] This paffage fhould be read thus, I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleafes THEM, and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women,

TO LIKE AS MUCH AS PLEASES THEM, that between you and ake women, &c. Without the alteration of You into Them the invocation is nonfense; and without the addition of the words, to like as much as plafes them, the inference of, that between you and the women the play may país, would be unfupported by any precedent premifes. The words feem to have been struck out by fome fenfelefs player, as a vicieus redundancy. WARBURTON.

The words you and written as was the custom in that time, were in manufcript fcarcely diftinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable. JOHNSON.

(as I perceive by your fimpering, 'none of you hate them) that between you and the women, the Play may please. If I were a woman, I would kifs as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defy'd not: and, I am fure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or fweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curt'fy, bid me farewel.

3

[Exeunt omnes.+

-If I were a woman,] Note that in this authour's time the parts of women were always performed by men or boys.

HANMER.

+ Of this play the fable is wild and pleafing. I know not how the ladies will approve the facility with which both Rofalind and Celia give away their hearts. To Celia much may be forgiven for the heroifm of her friendship. The character of Jaques is natural and well preferved. The comick dialogue is very sprightly, with lefs mixture of low buffoonery than in fome other plays; and the graver part is elegant and harmonious. By haftening to the end of his work, Shakespeare fuppreffed the dialogue between the ufurper and the hermit, and loft an opportunity of exhibiting a moral leffon in which he might have found matter worthy of his higheft powers. JOHNSON.